The Frozen Beginning (Elemental Diamond Book 1) (30 page)

For the first time this evening, Glacier feels like there is someone who doesn’t despise her.

Her eyes swell with the tears she could not shed earlier, and her heart beats with pride for herself, something she has never felt before.

“Thank you,” she manages to croak out, as her throat fills with emotion.

Bronze seems surprised by her emotive state, but smiles at her encouragingly. She gently rests her hand on Glacier’s shoulder, unflinching when she feels her cold skin.

“Stop hating yourself for what you can't control.”

Bronze gives her a knowing look that has Glacier spluttering for a reply.

“Isaac told me what you said in the Seeding. And after today’s battle, I understand what he meant.” Bronze gives her shoulder a delicate squeeze, eyes sparkling with support, “You can't control it
at all
, can you?”

And with those words, Glacier’s defence rises. Her eyes widen to saucers, and her mouth gapes like a fish. Without giving Bronze any farewell, Glacier bolts in the other direction, heading towards the stage. Once she is a safe distance from the earth elemental, she takes a deep breath to calm her nerves.

No one can know. No one can know!

The sound of a throat clearing has Glacier immediately glancing up to the stage, where she finds Hampton waiting for the audience to settle.

“Fellow elementals, as the speaker of the second to last gala for this tri-annual tournament, I would like to announce that the time for Harvest Winner’s Dance has come. The three winners of this year’s Harvest battles please step forward with your dance partner.”

Glacier momentarily freaks out as she looks around the crowd with fright.

What dance? They have a dance for the winners?

All of a sudden Glacier’s hand is captured, but one with hot skin and large fingers. “There you are, my lovely
date
. If you didn’t hear, we have a dance in which we must participate.” His smile is sly, and his hand is burning hot as it holds hers tightly.

Without a moment’s hesitation, he drags her to the centre of the dance floor where Aleena is already waiting, with an unfamiliar boy in a green shirt at her side. The instant the two of them are standing at the centre of the room, the soft music begins to play.

Soft gasps are heard around the crowd that has gathered to surround the dance floor. Brink wraps his warm arm around her waist, and with his free hand he holds hers shoulder level. Glacier stands at the very least, 10 centimetres below his shoulder, so he keeps their hands to her shoulder height.

As the music guides him, Brink moves the two of them around the floor gracefully. Glacier falls into step, dancing with ease, but still distracted. “I still don’t understand why you asked me to accompany you tonight? What do you have to gain from this, Brink?” His evil grin widens at her question. With that smile, she realizes that he has been waiting for her to ask it all night.

“I was wondering when you would finally ask. And to be honest, you won’t like the answer.” Glacier tenses as his remark, but she continues to move across the floor without much assistance.

“I don’t like
anything
you say or do. How would this be any different?” Her words are vicious, and her heart beats as fast as a bee’s wings.

Brink looks around the room for a second before his eyes rest on something behind Glacier. As they move gracefully around Aleena and her partner, Brink discreetly nods his head in the direction he is looking,

“Look at his sad, pathetic face…” Glacier turns at his words, and finds the dejected orange eyes that belong to the boy whose heart she had broken only a few nights earlier. Fielder’s face holds a large level of anger, but the betrayal burns brighter in his eyes.

Brink pulls Glacier tighter as he spins the two of them around. “He is why I asked you.”

Now confused by his words, Glacier turns back to face Brink with angry and frustrated eyes, “What is that supposed to mean, exactly? Stop speaking in riddles!” Her tone is monitored as she glares at the lava elemental crossly.

Why is nothing easy with him?

Brink seems momentarily thrown off by her abruptness, but quickly cools his features. “Farmer has been giving you the sappy love-sick eyes since the introductions, and it has been bugging me. Why not mess around with the guy a little bit?”

Glacier gapes at the boy guiding her around the dance floor effortlessly, shocked by his hurtful intentions.

He’s doing this to spite his own teammate? And why does he call him Farmer?
Fielder
isn’t a hard name to remember
.

She shakes her head to clear her racing mind, “Why? Why would you do that? What do you have to gain?” The song drawls to an end, and their dancing feet slow to an almost immobile stance. Brink gazes down at the small girl, his eyes continuing to gleam with mischief and trouble,

“Because, Glacie, I love that I can do
whatever
I like. And what is better than another guy getting the girl?”

Disgusted by his words, Glacier barely refrains herself from hissing at him like a wild cat.

She blanches back, deeply offended by his words, “You did not
get the girl!
You have absolutely no idea how much I despise you.” His lips quirk up despite her venomous words, seemingly unfazed by her opinion of him.

“It doesn’t matter how much you despise me. All that matters to me is that you are here tonight,
with me
. That you are dancing,
with me
.”

The song finally ends, and Brink presses a light kiss to his dance partner’s forehead, “Thank you for the dance, Glacie. I will be seeing you tomorrow at the arena for the first and final Program.”

And with that, he waltzes away in the direction of the entrance. Glacier stands at the centre of the dance floor as the audience surrounding them in a circle applauds. Glacier’s mind rings with his words as she is left staring after him in shock.

‘…
All that matters to me is that you are here with me
…’

Glacier quickly spins around in search of Fielder, but is meet with his retreating form as he heads towards the back exit. Torn between leaving him to walk out and following after him to explain herself, she watches with an aching heart. Glacier remembers back to the other night when she told him to never speak to her again, and her chest continues to constrict.

Don’t be soft now. You wanted this distance. You told him you didn’t want him around
…

Glacier holds her breath as she turns in the opposite direction to Fielder, and walks away.

Two more days
…
Two more days, and then Castor is free.

Two more days, and then I am done with this horrible nightmare
.

TWENTY

THE LABYRINTH

The arena is different this time.

Instead of a tunnel that leads to the ring below ground, it directs them to the glass above the arena, where fifteen long operation-style chairs are perched in a circle formation, facing out towards the audience. Momentarily freaked by the strange chair set up, Glacier pauses. She closes her eyes as she tries to pep talk herself into moving.

It’s just a Program. It’s only in the mind. It will only be a few minutes
…

Opening her eyes, she wills herself to keep moving, her eyes trained to the floor as she nears the seats. Beside every chair is a small hovering tray with a thin headpiece on top. The silver headpiece has a large circle at each end, either glowing a light green, a pale yellow or a faded blue. In the middle of the circle of chairs is a large, blank globe-like sphere. The remaining competitors find a seat closest to their tunnel, and sit.

Glacier squirms in the barely cushioned seat, uncomfortable with being presented to the audience so openly. She takes a quick glance around the chairs, finding every contestant either confused or exhausted.

Glacier rests her head back against her headrest, her frizzy hair cascading down past her shoulders to hang behind her. Without moving her head, she gazes around at the audience, who despite her not being underground, still seem to sit well above all the contestants.

She wiggles around on the chair trying to get comfortable when she suddenly hears one of the High Chamberman’s voices.

“My darling children,” Sasis speaks, “we have come to our first and
last
Program of the thirteenth tri-annual tournament. And as with every tournament before this, the location of the Program’s base has been developed to test the minds of our contestants. It will test their reflexes and problem solving skills.

“For those who have forgotten, the two Programs we used in the last tournament were obstacle courses. Through the consistent monitoring of the competitors brain activity, we discovered that the further they are pushed, and the more they fear, the better they perform. Under insistent yet moderate stress, they can overcome whatever problem they are faced with. So this year, the High Chamber has decided to have something very similar to an obstacle course.”

Sasis turns to the contestants, just as the Team Supervisors walk down the tunnels towards them. The Supervisors move around the circle, placing the headsets around the competitors’ heads. Glacier looks for Tanner, but she is instead approached by a blonde woman with her hair pulled back into a slick and tight bun at the back of her head.

The blonde steps behind Glacier’s chair, picking up her headband and whispers, “Lift your head.”

As Glacier raises her head, the woman slips the headpiece around the back of her head, resting the blue glowing ends against either side of her temple. A small shock resounds through her brain, alarming her.

Glacier feels herself slipping down her seat from the thin sheen of ice coating the surface. She looks around to see if any of the other competitors felt the same electric shock that she felt, but none of them seem startled by anything.

She tries settling back into the chair without slipping, whilst pretending as if nothing is out of the ordinary. She notices that every elemental alternates around the circle. On her left she has Pae, and on her right she has Porter.

Porter turns his head slightly, senses her brief gaze. “Don’t get too comfortable, princess. I’ll be seeing you real soon.” Glacier blanches at his open threat, her eyes bulging and her breath quickening.

‘I’ll be seeing you real soon’? Who says that?

Glacier quickly settles back into her chair, the sheet of ice nearly completely melted and now dripping onto the floor, creating large puddles. Glacier feels the entire back of her shirt and pants soaked with water, clinging to her skin even tighter. The headpiece buzzes against her temples, creating an almost unnoticeable vibration across her forehead. Her focus is once again claimed by Sasis as he continues with his speech.

“Ladies and gentlemen, our contestants will be competing in a labyrinth.”

A labyrinth? Like a maze?

“What our contestants must do is to solve the labyrinth by using their elemental strengths and problem solving skills. Whichever elemental is first to find the centre of the labyrinth wins the Program for their team. But there is a little twist…”

Glacier watches as the escorts move to stand by the tunnel entrances, folding their arms behind their backs dutifully

“Once they reach a certain distance into the maze, they reach what is called a Dead Zone. The Dead Zone is an area where all elemental abilities are voided from the Program until they pass…” The humming across Glacier’s forehead slowly becomes louder, causing her eyes to lose focus.

‘Elemental abilities are voided’? How do they manage that? And what the hell am I going to use to protect myself in the Dead Zones? I can't fight, and Thomes won’t be able to help me!

Her eyes begin to ache and her skin touching the headpiece starts to itch. Glacier feels another quick zap, this time more powerful, shoot through her brain.

She clenches her eyes tight, and grits her teeth tighter. She groans quietly, her seat even more slippery. Glacier manages to hold on to the armrests of the chair to keep her from slipping, her eyes still squeezed shut.

The crowd starts to shout and clap suddenly before she hears Sasis bellows, “Ladies and Gentlemen, what are we waiting for? Let’s have them solve this labyrinth!”

Less than a second later, Glacier’s head is splitting with pain as a current of electricity shoots through her head like a lightning bolt.

Screaming out, Glacier’s fingers clamp around the armrests, her nails buried in the thin cushion. The pain last less than a second, before it becomes a squealing echo in her head.

~

Opening her eyes, Glacier is surrounded by black. The floors are lit with small yellow lights illuminating the edges of the walls. The walls themselves are completely black, windowless and stretched into long corridors running behind, in front, and to either side of her. Her mind now completely tinted on an axis, Glacier spins around, confused with where she is.

Realizing that she is now standing, she looks down to find herself in a different outfit to what she was wearing earlier.

Her trousers are now tight black cargo pants, and her dark shirt has long sleeves and a collar reaching just below her jaw. Her hands are empty - no sign of her Passkey or brace on her wrists. Her eyebrows scrunch in confusion, not quite understanding why or how she is wearing different clothes. On her hip is a small black flask, swishing with what she assumes to be water. She reaches her hands up to feel how her hair is set, and finds it tied up in a fluffy ponytail.

The walls around her seems to breathe, moving like slow, sluggish waves. Glacier’s eyes follow the movements, before she reaches her hand out to feel it. But when she touches the flat wall, she feels no movement. Her fingers run across the level surface, following it down one of the sparsely lit corridors. Her mind is dizzy and aching, and her legs feel wobbly, but she manages to support her walk along the wall.

When she finally reaches the end of the corridor, she comes to a right turn. She follows it down, her legs slowly tightening, becoming less jelly-like, and her head clears of the dizzy spell. Glacier now lightly trails her fingertips along the wall as she cautiously traces down the hall. She listens for any sound, and watches for any movement. Continuously taking right turns, not allowing her skin to leave the wall, she soon grows exhausted of the walk.